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Creatures by Billy Collins
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Creatures by Billy Collins
Creatures by Billy Collins
Poem
Hamlet noticed them in the shapes of clouds,
but I saw them in the furniture of childhood,
creatures trapped under surfaces of wood,
one submerged in a polished sideboard,
one frowning from a chair-back,
another howling from my mother’s silent bureau,
locked in the grain of maple, frozen in oak.
I would see these presences, too,
in a swirling pattern of wallpaper
or in the various greens of a porcelain lamp,
each looking so melancholy, so damned,
some peering out at me as if they knew
all the secrets of a secretive boy.
Many times I would be daydreaming
on the carpet and one would appear next to me,
the oversize nose, the hollow look.
So you will understand my reaction
this morning at the beach
when you opened your hand to show me
a stone you had picked up from the shoreline.
“Do you see the face?” you asked
as the cold surf circled our bare ankles.
“There’s the eye and the line of the mouth,
like it’s grimacing, like it’s in pain.”
“Well, maybe that’s because it has a fissure
running down the length of its forehead
not to mention a kind of twisted beak,” I said,
taking the thing from you and flinging it out
over the sparkle of blue waves
so it could live out its freakish existence
on the dark bottom of the sea
and stop bothering innocent beachgoers like us,
stop ruining everyone’s summer.
Background
My poem is written by a man named Billy Collins on April 30th 2014. Billy collins is said to be the most popular poet in America. He was born in 1941 in New York City. He is famous for conversational and witty poems that welcomes readers with humor.
Background
Theme
The theme is childhood fears because the main issue the speaker deals with are the creatures he sees and they represent his fears.
Theme
Meaning of poem
The creatures in the poem represent the spreakers 'childhood fears' and how they develope as he ages. When he is a child, he sees the creatures in the furniture in his mom's house. But when he is an adult, he sees them along the shoreline.
Meaning
Form
Form is not recognizable because there is 9 Stanzas and 33 Lines
Aspects of poetry
Sound
Repetition: Lines 4 and 5
"one submerged in a polished sideboard"
"one frowning from a chair-back"
Sound
Rhyme scheme:
"but I saw them in the furniture of childhood"
"creatures trapped under surfaces of wood"
Speaker
The speaker is a young boy who lives with his mom
Speaker
Summary
Creatures lead us through the life of a boy who deals with fears of imaginary creatures that he sees in the furniture of his mothers house. We get to see how it affects his life and how these creatures change as he gets older.